Adolfo Luxúria Canibal

Adolfo Luxúria Canibal (Luanda, December 25, 1959), given name Adolfo Augusto Martins da Cruz Morais de Macedo, is a Portuguese lawyer, musician and poet, known as the lead singer of Mão Morta.

Adolfo was born in Luanda but grew up between Vieira do Minho and Braga. In 1978 he went to study Law in Lisbon where he lived until 1999.

Adolfo Luxúria Canibal has been, since 1984, the lyricist and vocalist of the group Mão Morta, after having been in groups such as Bang-Bang (1981), Auaufeiomau (1981-1984) and PVT Industrial (1984).

He staged and acted in performances and multimedia shows such as Rococó, Faz o Galo (1983), Dos Gatos Brancos que Jazem Mortos na Berma do Caminho de Ferro (1983), Labiu e a Pulga Amestrada (1984) and later in Müller at the Hotel Hessischer Hof (1997). He appeared as an actor in Maldoror (2007), directed by António Durães and in the play Eis o Homem! by the company Mundo Razoável, directed by Marta Freitas (2013).

He performed spoken word shows, solo (1999) or with António Rafael (since 2004), under the name Estilhaços. With João Martinho Moura and Miguel Pedro he conceived the digital art performance Câmara Neuronal for the FrameArt exhibition of the European Capital of Culture – Guimarães 2012. He participated in the collective conception and performed, with Mão Morta, José Mário Branco, Fernando Lapa, Amélia Muge and Pacman, in the musical So Fica…, closing community show of the European Capital of Culture – Guimarães 2012 staged by António Durães.

With António Rafael he conceived, recorded and performed live the soundtrack for the installation The Wall of Pleasure by artist Tiago Estrada at Rooster Gallery, in New York (2013). Still with António Rafael and Miguel Pedro, he composed and performed in the musical Chão (2014), a community show, with the participation of 70 women from Paredes de Coura, staged by João Pedro Vaz for the tenth anniversary of the theater company Comédias do Minho.

He created the collection of Braga bands À Sombra de Deus as well as the first volume À Sombra de Deus – Braga 88 (together with Berto Borges and the fourth volume À Sombra de Deus IV – Braga 2012 together with Miguel Pedro. In 2002 he created, with António Rafael and Miguel Pedro, the independent label Cobra, having released several albums by Mão Morta and artists such as Anger, Erro!, Houdini Blues, Fat Freddy, Jazz Iguanas, Umpletrue, Mundo Cão or At Freddy’s House.

He had small roles as an actor in the films Gel Fatal by António Ferreira and O Dragão de Fumo by José Carlos de Oliveira. He conceived, with João Onofre, the video art film S/title (мій голос), shown at the 19th Vila do Conde International Short Film Festival. In 2012 he was the subject of the documentary Fado Canibal, directed by Timóteo Azevedo.

He wrote various texts for newspapers and magazines, such as Vértice or 365, and was, from 2000 to 2004, a correspondent for the newspaper Blitz. He had an opinion column in the weekly O Independente (1999) and maintained a weekly chronicle on the radio Antena 3 (2001-2004), a fortnightly chronicle in the Vidas magazine of the daily Correio da Manhã (2008-2010) and a fortnightly chronicle in the weekly Sol (2014-2016). At the invitation of Antena 3 radio, he was the author and speaker of a series of 14 2-hour programs about music and poetry, broadcast weekly between September and December 2016 under the title Cantigas de Amigo. Since January 2011, he has had a monthly feature in the Domingo magazine of the Correio da Manhã newspaper.

He edited the books Rock & Roll, Estilhaços, Estilhaços e Cesariny and Todas as Ruas do Mundo. He wrote the preface to an edition of The Cantos of Maldoror, by the Count of Lautréamont. He was the author of a summary on the history of the Peneda-Gerês National Park and an ecocritical essay on the novels of Valter Hugo Mãe. He created with the photographer and plastic artist Fernando Lemos the book-object Diacrónico Drawing, published in Brazil on the occasion of opening of his retrospective exhibition Lá e Cá, at the Pinacoteca do Estado de São Paulo. He translated Heiner Müller (1997) and Vladimir Maiakovski (2006). He collected and selected press articles and wrote the preface for the book Revista de Imprensa – Os Mão Morta na Narrativa Mediaática (1985-2015) (2016) which provides a biography of Mão Morta based on news, album and concert reviews , reports and interviews published in the Portuguese press for 30 years.

In 2003, he was considered one of the 50 most important living personalities in Portuguese culture by the weekly Expresso.[4] In 2011, at the Centenary Celebrations of the University of Lisbon, he was one of 100 former students invited to give a talk in the 100 Lições cycle, which he titled Profession: Dilettante. From Music to Nature Conservation.

From 2000 to 2009, and again between 2015 and 2016, he was part of the Portuguese-French group Mécanosphère, as a vocalist. He also participated as a vocalist or lyricist on several albums and shows by more than a dozen Portuguese and foreign groups and artists, such as Pop Dell’Arte, Clã, Moonspell, WrayGunn, Houdini Blues, Jorge Palma, Pat Kay & The Gajos, Steve Mackay , Mark Stewart or Hilmar Orn Hilmarsson.